Conditions here are just right for me: Ishant

Conditions here are just right for me: Ishant

Seeking to regain form, Indian pacer Ishant Sharma is keen to make an impression in favourable English conditions during the Champions Trophy starting on Thursday.

On pitches where the ball is expected to swing and bounce, Ishant seeks to improve his tournament record and resurrect a career that is increasingly under threat from younger colleagues.

"The conditions here are just right for me. For both batsmen and bowlers it's going to be a challenge," he said, adding, "It's going to be a mental thing this time. If we can bowl in the right areas, the wickets will come and that's been our focus at the nets," said Ishant.

Working overtime

Ishant worked overtime at the nets at the Swalec Stadium on Monday. He bowled at full steam for close to an hour as India rotated their main batsmen on two adjacent wickets close to the main square.

Ishant is clearly not in top form. He leaked runs – a record 66 against Chennai Super Kings -- during the Indian Premier League and hardly justified the price Sunrisers Hyderabad paid to buy him.

In India's first warm-up game against Sri Lanka in Birmingham on June 1, the lanky pacer conceded 41 runs in his six overs and got the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene. But Ishant doesn't want to read much into all this.

"It's not the number of runs we fast bowlers conceded but the fact that the pacers repeatedly missed the edge of the bat are signs that the ball was being pitched in the right areas," explained Ishant.